it freely: The Trout (for which I love to angle above any fish) may be justly said (as the ancient Poets fay of Wine, and we English say of Venfon) to be a generous fish, because he has his seasons, a fish that comes in, and goes out with the Stag or Buck: and you are to observe, that as there be fome barren Does, that are good in Summer; fo there be fome barren Trouts,that are good in Winter; but there are not that are fo, for ufually they be in their perfection in the month of May, and decline with the Buck: Now you are to take notice, that in several Countries, as in Germany and in other parts compar❜d to ours, they differ much in their bigness, shape, and other wayes, and fo do Trouts; 'tis wel known that the Lake Lemon, the Lake of Geneva, there are Trouts taken, of three Cubits long, as is affirmed by Gefner, a Writer of good credit and Mercator fayes,

many

the

the Trouts that are taken in the Lake of Geneva, are a great part of the Merchandize of that famous City.And you are further to know, that there be certaine waters that breed Trouts remarkable,both for their number and fmalness- I know a little Brookin Kent that breeds them to a number incredible, and you may take them twentie or fortie in an hour, but none greater then about the fize of a Gudgion. There are alfo in divers Rivers, especially that relate to, or be near to the Sea, (as VVinchester,or the Thames about VVindfor) a little Troutcalled a Samlet or Skegger Trout (in both which places I have caught twentie or fortie at a standing) that will bite as fast and as freely as Minnows; these be by some taken to be young Salmons, but in those waters they never grow to bee bigger then a Herring.

There is alfo in Kent, neer to Canterbury, a Trout (called there a G 3

For

Fordig Trout) a Trout (that bears the name of the Town where 'tis ufually caught) that is accounted rare meat, many of them near the bignefs of a Salmon, but knowne by their different colour, and in their best season cut very white;and none have been known to be caught with an Angle, unless it were one that was caught by honeft Sir George Haftings, an excellent Angler (and now with God) and he has told me,he thought that Trout bit not for hunger, but wantonnefs; and 'tis the rather to be believed, because both he then, and many others before him have been curious to fearch into their bellies what the food was by which they lived; and have found out nothing by which they might fatisfie their curiofitie.

Concerning which you are to take notice, that it is reported, there is a fish that hath not any mouth, but lives by taking breath by the porinfs

of

of her gils,and feeds and is nourish'd by no man knows what; and this may be believed of the Fordig Trout, which (as it is faid of the Stork, that he knowes his season, so he) knows his times (I think almost his day) of coming into that River out of the Sea, where he lives (and it is like feeds) nine months of the year, and about three in the River of Fordig.

And now for some confirmation of this; you are to know, that this Trout is thought to eat nothing in the fresh water; and it may be the better believed, because it is well known, that Swallowes, which are not seen to flye in England for fix months in the year, but about Michaelmas leave us for a hotter climate; yet some of them, that have been left behind their fellows, have View Sir been found (many thousand at a time) in hollow trees, where they have been observed to live and fleep

F 4

out

Fra. Bacon exper.899.

See Topfel out the whole winter without meat; of Frogs and fo Albertus observes that there is

one kind of Frog that hath her mouth naturally shut up about the end of August, and that the lives fo all the Winter, and though it be strange to fome, yet it is known to too many amongst us to bee doubted.

And so much for thefe Fordidg Trouts, which never afford an Angler fport, but either live their time of being in the fresh water by their meat formerly gotten in the Sea,(not unlike the Swallow or Frog) or by the vertue of the fresh water only, as the Camelion is faid to live by the air.

There is alfo in Northumberland, a Trout, called a Bull Trout, of a much greater length and bigneffe then any in these Southern parts; and there is in many Rivers that relate to the Sea, Salmon Trouts as much different one from another, both in

hape